The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--And What They Expect in Return: Amazon.ca: Charles Lewis: Books

Product Description

Book Description

Is The Oval Office For Sale?

The Buying of the President 2004 reveals how the process of choosing a president has moved from the voting booth to the auction block, and highlights the special interests that heavily invest in the politicians seeking the nation's highest office. Lewis and his team reveal and investigate the sponsors and the known and not-so-known conflicts of interest entangling each of the aspirants to the White House. This is the only book of its kind, containing investigative profiles and personal histories of the major presidential candidates.

Here you will find answers to questions like

Which candidate was paid by a pharmaceutical firm to give speeches while running for the Senate?
Who turned the Homeland Security Act into a bonanza for the biotech industry?
Which candidate proposed 32 separate tax breaks for big businesses that support his campaign?
Who is the "go-to guy" for the insurance industry?

About the Author

Charles Lewis is the founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization focusing on ethics and public service issues. He has recently been awarded the 1998 McArthur "Genius" grant.

The Center For Public Integrity is the non-profit, nonpartisan watchdog organization that produced The Buying of the President in 1996 and The Buying of the Congress in 1998.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Politics, Winston Churchill once said, are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Oh Really?, May 28 2004

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Guipi Boy "gupiboy" (Wausau, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--And What They Expect in Return (Paperback)

Why do people fall for this tired story? Surprise! The power process is in the hands of the powerful. This is as old as time. Can it be news to anyone? Now if Mr. Lewis wanted to provide some slightly more interesting/dangerous information he would take a look at how law makers (house and senate) are bought. Of course they would shot him from his horse. Oh well, guess he has been bought.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Money and Politics, May 19 2004

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"cjkhum" (Carlotta, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--And What They Expect in Return (Paperback)

The Buying of the President 2004 is an excellent book documenting the connection of political decisions and positions to donations for political campaigns. Author Charles Lewis makes the connection by using examples of President Bush and the Democrats that were competing for the Democratic nomination. President Bush and all of the Democratic competitors were linked to specific incidents where decisions and positions were made or taken based on influence from campaign contributors or personal investments.

For those who follow politics the fact that wealthy individuals, powerful issue groups, and large corporations exchange campaign contributions for political influence is nothing new. The exchange of campaign contributions for political influence can be a bit shocking even to those who know that it goes on when seeing it in as much detail as is in this book. I came to several conclusions while reading this book. One of the conclusions is that voters themselves don't mean much to politicians when more and more money is needed to run campaigns and the money has to be raised privately. The other conclusion is that this system is nothing more than legal bribery. This system lets the wealthy decide who can run for office and who can't. The voters then can decide only between pre-approved candidates.

President George W. Bush is one of the best sellers of influence in office right now. The book details many instances when the President sold influence. One of the most notorious companies that bought influence from President Bush was his largest contributor Enron. When Bush became Governor of Texas Enron Chairman Ken Lay was head of the Governor's Business Council. Under Governor Bush the GBC went from a minor agency to one of the most influential state agencies in Texas. Ken Lay being the head of the GBC and Chairman of one of the largest energy companies in Texas gain much influence with the Governor. There were many other examples of Governor Bush's selling of influence at the expense of everyday people.

Senator Kerry also has taken money from special interests that have influenced his position on certain issues. The telecommunications industry is a good example. Senator Kerry has been a good ally to the telecommunications industry and has pushed their agenda in congress. It just so happens that a law firm that represents the telecom industry and employs Senator Kerry's brother is Senator Kerry's largest contributor.

All of these examples point to one main lesson of the entire book. The lesson is that our democracy has been and is continuing to be eroded by the necessity to raise large amounts of money for campaigns for public office. Politicians have no choose but to do the bidding of their contributors. If politicians don't do their contributors bidding they cut off the ability to get reelected. This reality makes the voters far less important then they used to be.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST read for every voter!, April 21 2004

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DD (The Heart of Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers--And What They Expect in Return (Paperback)

This book is THE benchmark for investigative journalism done by the people at www.publicintegrity.org. An honest, fair and balanced presentation of the facts surrounding the Democratic candidates for President 2004 (which has since been whitled down to Kerry) and President Gearge W. Bush. You simply cannot say you are an informed voter until you read this book.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The president is bought and sold!
A disturbing book.

It is a terrible thing to contemplate what money has done to prostitute the American political process. Read more

Published on Mar 27 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Strongly reccomended
This is a must read. I found it to be fair and factual.